US Issuing Licenses for Mineral Mining on Moon

Excerpt from space-travel.com


Washington DC (Sputnik) Feb 09, 2015

Bigelow Aerospace plans to test a space habitat at the International Space Station this year, and then operate free-flying orbital outposts for customers, including government agencies, research organizations, businesses and even tourists.

The United States government is taking a new and early approach to spur

commercial development of space. The Federal Aviation Administration

(FAA) has started issuing companies licenses to own land on the moon.

In a letter to space technology company, Bigelow Aerospace, the FAA says

it intends to modify its licensing regulations to “encourage private

sector investments in space systems by ensuring that commercial

activities can be conducted on a non-interference basis,” according to

Reuters.

Under such license, the company that develops inflatable space habitats,

will have exclusive rights to a territory and related areas on the

moon, where it can set up an inflatable habitat and perform mining and

exploration.

However, this initiative was met with hesitation by the US State

Department, which reminded the FAA that the US is a signatory to the

1967 United Nations treaty, which governs activities on the moon.

The UN Outer Space treaty requires countries to authorize and supervise non-government entities operating in space…

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US Issuing Licenses for Mineral Mining on Moon